Space in the modern motor vehicle is at a premium. As an example, with reference to FIG. 1 only a finite amount of space can be devoted to a conventional vehicle glove box or glove compartment 10 (or indeed any other storage compartment conventionally or conveniently disposed on or in a vehicle dash panel 12) in order to accommodate other necessary and desired components typically disposed in, on, or near the vehicle dash panel, for example audio systems (not shown), speakers (not shown), center consoles 14, HVAC registers 16 and ductwork not shown), audio system controller/information center/navigation system control panels (shown generally as ref. num. 18), etc. For a conventional vehicle glove box 10 design, in view of the many components which must be packaged in the dash, it may not be possible to alter the glove box to provide a deeper or wider storage space because of lack of room to expand the glove box rearwardly or to the side. Therefore, any increase in storage space or versatility of a glove box often comes at the expense of passenger legroom. However, particularly in smaller vehicles passenger legroom is also at a premium and so represents a significant consideration to which extensive engineering expertise and effort are applied.
Moreover, in certain vehicles it may not be necessary or desirable to provide a full-sized glove box. Instead, the user may prefer a sleek, uninterrupted dash panel design and may only require dash panel storage capable of holding small items such as a purse, small shopping bags, smaller electronic devices, etc.
To solve this and other problems, the present disclosure relates to a vehicle dash panel storage compartment configured to provide storage capacity for a passenger while minimizing intrusion into passenger legroom. Advantageously, the dash panel storage compartment of this disclosure is configured for deployment in a variety of configurations, maximizing utility and convenience.